Workshop
"Reconstruction in a post-conflict situation
A Dialogue between ethnic groups"

Budva/Montenegro, 25th to 27th of May 2000

The Expert Workshop "Reconstruction of Ex-Yugoslavia – a dialogue between ethnic groups" is sponsored by the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH, Germany (www.gtz.de) and carried out in cooperation with the European Academy Bozen/Bolzano, Italy (South Tyrol) (www.eurac.edu). The aim of the project is collecting ideas from the people of Ex-Yugoslavia concerning their future, the reconstruction of the region and the dialogue between the various ethnic and social groups. The project will be conducted in three phases: the first meeting, with representatives from Belgrade, Vojvodina and Sanjak, will be held in Budva, Montenegro (25.-27.05.2000); the second meeting will take place in Pristina with representatives from Kosovo (07.-08.07.2000); and the final meeting will take place in South Tyrol this autumn (24.-28.08.2000) with all participants together. The workshop in Budva will be divided into three panels in order to guarantee an effective discussion. The panels are as follows:

1. Regional co-operation
2. Decentralization, federalization and local self government
3. Education

This selection was made based upon the suggestions made by our partners, namely from a list of crucial points for discussion elaborated at our first meeting in Belgrade and Vojvodina in February. As the GTZ will most likely be able to sponsor similar projects in the future, we hope that the discussions conducted in the various panels will generate ideas and approaches for further projects in the future. We would like to establish a small network of persons who are willing and able to work together across ethnic lines and to cooperate with institutions such as ours.

The purpose of this project is to sow the seeds for future co-operation; we do not expect that these seeds will grow immediately and bear fruit, but rather hope that they will begin to form delicate roots and in the future be able to hold the soil. The goal of this project is not only to generate theoretical, academic results, since solutions on paper are of little use if not carried out in practice. Rather, mutual linking with participants and among them is the most important, as well as their willingness to cooperate in finding acceptable solutions concerning the issues of our discussion.

The GTZ (www.gtz.de) is an association for development of cooperation on a broader scale. As a government organization of the Federal Republic of Germany, it operates as a private-sector enterprise with a development-policy mandate, which is sustainable improvement of the living conditions of people in partner countries and conserving the natural resource base upon which life depends. ·

The GTZ was established in I975. Within the framework of a General Agreement, its major client, the Federal German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), vested in it the responsibility for Conducting Technical Cooperation activities. The GTZ also supports development and reform processes on behalf of other German ministries, partner country governments and international organizations and institutions, such as the EU, the UN and the World Bank. It works on a public-benefit basis. Any generated surpluses are channeled into its own development cooperation projects.

The GTZ has more than 10,000 employees in 130 countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eastern European countries in transition and the CIS states. The GTZ conducts several projects in Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Romania.

The European Academy of Bolzano/Bozen (www.eurac.edu) runs research and postgraduate programs in South Tyrol. Founded in 1992, the Academy conducts research and provides education programs in the following areas:

• Language and Law
• Ethnic Minorities and Regional Autonomies
• Alpine Environment
• Management and Corporate Culture

Due to its central geographic location and three language groups, South Tyrol represents an interface for various cultures and perspectives, thereby allowing the European Academy to serve as a bridge between the Italian and the German language areas as well as unite various disciplines, academic realms and societies.